Indigenous Customary Law and International Intellectual Property: Ascertaining an Effective Indigenous Definition for Misappropriation of Traditional Knowledge

The effective protection of indigenous traditional knowledge from misappropriation is a fundamental challenge faced by the intellectual property system. A substantial aspect of this challenge is how the intellectual property regime can practically utilise or incorporate indigenous customary law as a means of protection against misappropriation, when there is an inherent tension between the former and the latter. Any international legal instrument intended to protect against misappropriation of indigenous traditional knowledge will have to contend with this tension: a definition of misappropriation ought to encourage use of local indigenous customary law, but it also must be practically applicable within the confines of the intellectual property system. Consequently, this article considers the challenge in two parts. The first part requires ascertainment of a potential international legal definition of misappropriation that will uphold and maintain indigenous customary law, in the context of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) draft articles. To ensure the definition effectively affirms indigenous customary law, it will be based on three key "approaches" to indigenous custom. The second part entails application of the definition to the domestic context, namely through the case studies of New Zealand and Australia, and a subsequent critique of the difficulties of application, to illustrate the challenge of incorporating indigenous customary law within the intellectual property system. This article concludes that the risks inherent in an aspirational definition of misappropriation which may have some challenges in application are outweighed by the potential of normalising and encouraging indigenous customary law as the foundational basis for truly effective protection of traditional knowledge against misappropriation

The management of complex sociobiophysical systems: Ecosystem-based management and the Chesapeake Bay Program

There are an entire class of entities for which conventional scientific understanding is necessary but not sufficient to comprehend. These entities are too complex for analysis and yet too organized for statistics. They exist in a dynamic balance between the ordered and the disordered. They are ecosystems and human institutions. They are complex systems. There is an emerging body of theory that is providing insight into the structures and dynamics that underlie such entities. Under the rubric of complex systems theory, catastrophe theory, chaos theory, hierarchy theory and the interrelated theories of self-organization have profound implications for the way understand the world around us. The field of environmental planning and management exists along the boundary between two complex systems: the ecological and the human socio-economic. Until recently efforts to conserve, restore or even understand such complex sociobiophysical systems have been limited on a theoretical or even epistemological level. Complex systems theory is providing powerful heuristics for the management of human activities within such systems. Current environmental management literature points to three themes or requirements for a systems-based or ecosystem-based approach to planning and management within complex sociobiophysical systems: systems-based science, ethical governance and adaptive management. These themes provide a framework for the integration of some of the most recent complexity theory-based planning and management heuristics in order to produce a new conceptual ideal for ecosystem-based management. This conceptual ideal is compared to an existing case example of adaptive, ecosystem-based management so that insights can be drawn. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), one of North-America\u27s most studied and well- recognized examples of ecosystem-based management is examined and compared to the conceptual ideal developed. The program\u27s officially mandated and operational scientific, governance and management perspectives are described. Strengths and limitations of the CBP are drawn from the comparison with the ideal ecosystem-based management perspective and conclusions and general recommendations for the further development of the approach are presented

Numerical Techniques for Classifying Forest Communities in the Tennessee Valley

The main objectives of this study were: 1. To develop a series of vegetational classification systems based on the floristics of community strata, overstory structural functional features, and environmental parameter of a region typical of the temperate Tennessee Valley; 2. To examine the suitability of these classification systems for the complex forests of the Tennessee Valley; 3. To develop numerical tools for evaluating classification suitability; 4. To use these tools to seek out natural discontinuities in vegetational patterns. To achieve these goals six multivariate cluster analysis programs were examined. Preliminary tests brought out undesirable properties in four of them, however, and these were eliminated from further use. The remaining two programs, MINFO and MDISP, were then employed on a data set from Fentress County, Tennessee; and classification hierarchies were built based on overstory, reproduction, shrubs, overstory plus shrubs, ground cover, all species regardless of stratum, structural - functional characteristics, structural - functional plus quantitative vegetational characteristics, and environmental parameters. Three additional subjective, overstory classification systems were also examined -- a TVA forest-type system, a personally derived system, and a system based on three leading dominant species. Two numerical tools were developed for examining these classification systems. The first tool, the mean indicator score (MIS), is based on the constancy and fidelity of individual species for a particular cluster type. The MIS sums the indicator values (defined in terms of constancy and fidelity) of the species having the strongest affinities for given clusters. The second too, the mean environmental score (MES), sums the response of particular clusters for given environmental parameters. The MIS, then, examines the suitability of a particular classification in terms of floristic affinity, while the MES evaluates in term of environmental response. When 23 Fentress County classifications were compared on the MES scale, a definite trend was evident; but the individual MES\u27s were statistically not clearly distinguishable. It was concluded, therefore, that the classifications of that particular data set were not readily differentiable in terms of response to the environment. The MIS scale, on the other hand, was much more conclusive, especially when calculations were based on the top 50 indicator species. MINFO classifications of ground cover, overstory, shrubs, and overstory plus shruurbs scored the highest. It was, therefore, concluded that any of these strata could be used to develop suitable vegetation classifications. Structural-functional systems and environmental classifications proved to be particularly unsuitable. All of the classification systems were compared in terms of similarity and were found, in general, to be highly dissimilar. None of the classifications converged on any one interpretation of vegetational patterns. An attempt was made to recognize natural discontinuities in the vegetation by calculating MIS\u27s at each level of cluster hierarchy. Although the MIS did reach a maximum at an optimal hierarchy level, it was found that the maximum MIS is directly dependent on the weights assigned to fidelity and constancy and is only coincidentally related to the data. Any model that is a function of fidelity and constancy must maximize at a level defined by the constraints of the model rather than by an imposition of the data. If natural discontinuities in the data happen to coincide with maximizing scores for the model, this if fortuitous but is no guarantee that the two will always coincide

Employer Attitudes and Expressed Willingness to Hire Deaf Workers

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A case study of implementing response to intervention in high school

Many secondary schools pride themselves on having a rigorous academic program for all students. These same schools are excited to share how their students have become more socially responsible after graduation. In fact, many schools provide both ideologies in their mission statements and plaster it throughout their buildings, websites, publications, and letterhead. But what secondary schools should be asking and answering is: how do their teams respond when students do not master the material? Schools that successfully provide student intervention and support student mastery at every level of content attainment should celebrate and promote this product of student growth. Studies, mostly in elementary schools, highlight that well-implemented response to intervention, or RTI, processes include the following: formation of intervention teams, development of a universal screening process, continual monitoring of students for progress, and use of evidence-based interventions. Previous studies on RTI in secondary school settings have shown some success with reading and math interventions, but various barriers to implementation also existed and were minimally discussed. Seeking to add to the growing body of RTI literature in a high school setting, this qualitative case study explored to what degree the essential elements of response to intervention, or RTI, were implemented in Aspen Time, one high school's uniquely designed, daily, 30-minute, student intervention period. Data collection included document review, focus groups, interviews and observations of Aspen Time. Analyses found four barriers to implementation (scheduling/structure, curriculum issues, fidelity, and staff capacity/professional development) and offered recommendations for high schools on RTI implementation.Includes bibliographical reference

Property rights, collective action, and plant genetic resources

"Many factors affect the conservation of biodiversity, including demographic changes, technological developments, national agricultural policies, and economic, social, and cultural factors. Institutional aspects related to property rights and collective action play a key role in local plant genetic conservation outcomes... Policymakers should be aware of the links between property rights, collective action, and local conservation of local plant genetic diversity. It is important to take into account local regulatory frameworks as well as the existence and overlap of multiple legal systems, try to build on these, and avoid policies that might in fact reduce access to genetic diversity for local populations, in order to avoid eroding genetic diversity and increasing the vulnerability of the poor." from Text.Poverty alleviation ,Property rights ,Collective action ,

Leadership Traits and Principles of the U. S. Marine Corps

In this session, participants will be introduced to the Marine Corps traits and principles of emphasizing bottom-up execution, top-down support, commander’s intent and end state.https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/leadhour/1004/thumbnail.jp

The fields o\u27 Ballyclare

https://digitalcommons.ithaca.edu/sheetmusic/1209/thumbnail.jp

Construction of an instrument for the measurement of educational philosophy

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Boston Universit